Did Google Send 700,000 Households to the Wrong Polling Place?

Google may know everything about everything, but a political technology company says they may have told may have gotten it wrong when it came to telling people where to vote.
“Where do I vote” or a variation of this was trending high all day long on Google.com

Aristotle, a tech company specializing in political data, predicted that more than 700,000 households in 12 battleground states may have gotten wrong information on where to vote.

Politico reported that John Phillips, CEO of Aristotle, said:

“If you’re being sent to the wrong polling place, it’s a pretty big deal, especially if it’s toward the end of the day, and especially if it’s an election that’s closely contested like 2010.”

His animus toward Google may be suspect because Aristotle runs the site called WhereIVote.com

Here’s how they arrived at their conclusion

Aristotle premised its prediction on a series of simulations: The company selected about 1,000 households in targeted states, compared their polling place data against Google’s app and derived an error rate it later used to predict the number of area households possibly affected by the mishap.

Google said the company is working diligently to fix the problem and

“make sure it reflects the most up-to-date information provided to us by the board of elections. Anyone who finds a discrepancy can report an error using the link provided at the bottom of the page.

Aristotle rebutted:

Google is a great company; they do things well. This is not one of them.

Photo: Tom Prete